The Silver Lining
by Casteline
Summary: Every cloud has a silver lining. What does that even mean? SSSB Slash. Marauder era
1. Prologue

Title: The Silver Lining

Summary: Every cloud has a silver lining. What does that even mean? SSSB Slash.

Disclaimer: I don't own. Wish I did.

Authors note: So, originally this was going to be a one shot. I had the whole thing planned out in my head, up to exactly how it ended. And then I added a little more to the beginning, and then a little more to the end. And I did that until it was much longer than a one shot. Then when I was typing it up, the whole beginning changed. So yeah, the first few chapters aren't how I originally wanted them, and the original idea is somewhere around chapter four and fivish, but I still like it.

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The Silver Lining

**Prologue**

_Have you ever had one of those really bad feelings? One of those days where you just know something bad is going to happen? You just don't know what._

_I've had that feeling since I woke up this morning._

_James says to ignore it, that I'm just anxious about the prank we're going to pull this afternoon._

_I've pulled loads of pranks before. I'm not anxious._

_Remus says to trust my instincts._

_The only problem is that my instincts are telling me that something is wrong. Not what is wrong._

_Peter thinks I'm probably just hungry._

_I'm not even going to explain why he is wrong._

_Part of me can't wait for this day to be over._

_So that whatever terrible thing is going to happen will be over with._

_And part of me wants this day to last forever._

_So whatever it is never has to happen._

_No matter what they say, I can't shake this feeling of dread._

_The feeling of knowing something is going to happen._

_But not knowing what it is._

Not knowing how to stop it.

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Review if you want me to continue.

Ella


	2. Chapter 1

Don't own, etc, etc, etc.

Sorry it took so long to update. My computer crashed and it took a while to get a new one.

Enjoy

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The Silver Lining

**Chapter One**

"I don't thing we should do this," Sirius said nervously.

"Ha, finally someone who sees things from my point of view!" Remus exclaimed.

Sirius and James gave him a funny look (Peter was eating pie that he found under the bed…Merlin knows how long it had been down there).

"What could possibly go wrong?" James asked once he got over the shock of Remus' outburst.

"Besides everything?" Remus asked.

"I just… I have a bad feeling."

"What happened the last time you had a feeling like this?" James pointed out.

"Remus almost killed Snape," said, as if proving his point.

"Unintentionally!" Remus exclaimed.

"Not the point," Sirius said.

"No. The point is it was Snape. Who cares? Are you really going to give up on a chance to completely humiliate Snivilus on some hunch? A hunch that probably has nothing to due with this?"

"Yeah, I am," Sirius said getting up and walking out of the dormitory.

James' mouth hung agape as he left. Then it fell to the floor when Remus got up and followed him.

"Sirius is right. We shouldn't do this," he said before walking out the door.

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Reviews are wonderful :)

Ella


	3. Chapter 2

Her is chapter two!!

Enjoy!

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The Silver Lining

**Chapter Two**

"Thank you," Sirius said.

"For what?" Remus asked as the two of them headed… well, neither knew exactly where they were going, but it was away from the common room.

"Backing me up."

"I'm just glad someone else sees my side on this. Out of curiosity, what made you change your mind?"

"I don't like this feeling. And I don't care what James says, it's got something to due with this prank."

"Do you think he'll still do it without us?"

"Yes," Sirius said, not an ounce of doubt in his voice.

"Yeah…" Remus said, agreeing completely. "We have to stop him."

"How. The mission goes down in…" he looked at a clock in the hallway they were in. "Now."

"We'll find a way."

"No we won't. Have fun trying though," he added sarcastically.

Remus seemed to have nothing to say, so instead turned and walked away.

"There's nothing you can do," Sirius said again as walked in the opposite direction.

It was several minutes later that Sirius realized he was at the door to the Great Hall.

And the site of the Marauders latest prank.

There were a million reasons Sirius wished he wasn't here.

And exactly none that he was willing to admit.

Suddenly the doors burst open and the sound of laughter filler his ears. Seconds later, a tall, black haired boy (seventeen year old boy that is) slinked out, obviously completely humiliated.

"I'm sorry," Sirius whispered as the doors fell shut. It seemed that Snape hadn't realized he was there.

"Go to hell Black," he hissed in return, before walking away.

"I am sorry," Sirius repeated, though no one heard. He headed up to the Gryffindor common room.

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Ella


	4. Chapter 3

The Silver Lining

**Chapter Three**

"Out of curiosity," James said, entering the 7th year boy's dorm. "What crawled up your butt and died?"

Sirius was sitting quietly in the window seat staring out the window. He didn't seem to notice or care about his friends arrival.

"What happened to you?" James asked, rather disgusted with his friend.

"What happened to you?" Sirius jumped up. "This used to be about having fun. We used to pull harmless pranks for everyone's amusement. Not others humiliation. When did this become about you little vendetta with Snape. Honestly, who fucking cares?"

"You used to."

Sirius was disgusted by his answer, but did not respond. He grabbed his coat and headed out the door for the second time that day.

He walked aimlessly around the castle. He didn't care where he ended up, as long as it was now where near James.

For a long while, he managed to avoid teachers, prefects and Mrs. Norris.

But that luck couldn't last. Mrs. Norris rounded a corner at one end of a hallway, as Sirius round the one at the other end.

"Uh oh," he said as the cat turned and ran to her master.

Sirius ducked into a nearby classroom and shut the door quietly.

"Come on…" he muttered, digging through his pockets. Seconds later, he pulled out an old piece of folded parchment. "Thank Merlin for small miracles," he muttered opening it. "I solemnly swear I am up to no good."

It took him a moment to locate Filch, but thankfully, he was on the other side of the castle. As were most of the teachers. However, Madam Deegan, the librarian, was headed right down the corridor outside the classroom Sirius was in.

He quietly cast the disillusionment charm on himself (and shuttered as the feeling of raw egg running down his neck). He waited until he saw the little black dot round the corner before exiting the room quietly.

Or at least, he tried.

Most of the doors in the school were rather hard to close and involved actually pulling them shut. There were a few however, that shut on their own.

Like this one, which slammed shut and made quite a noise.

"What was that?" Madam Deegan asked, rounding the corner once more.

Sirius headed to the opposite end of the hallway and walked out into the grand staircase.

Maybe he should just head down to the Room or Requirement and crash there.

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	5. Chapter 4

The Silver Lining

**Chapter Four**

Getting to the Room of Requirement seemed easy enough.

But it wasn't. Sirius had already almost run into three teachers and a ghost (not to mention Mrs. Norris and Madam Deegan). And he wasn't even there yet.

Sirius pulled out the map once more and glanced around the area of the Room of Requirement (though it wasn't actually shown, he knew exactly where it was). Professor Green was nearby and that stuck up Prefect, Dolores Umbridge, was pacing up and down the whole corridor.

There was no way he could get in.

He glanced around the map to get some idea of where he could go. Naturally, the only place now not overrun with teachers was the area around Gryffindor tower.

And the Astronomy tower.

But it seemed someone was already there.

Severus Snape.

_What could he possibly be doing up there? He doesn't have astronomy_.

Sirius headed toward the tower to see.

What he found shocked him.

"What are you doing?" Sirius asked when he saw the Slytherin.

Snape was sitting on a ledge, his feet dangling off the tower.

"What do you want Black?" he asked, not moving.

"We'll I was looking for a place to be alone, but now I'm wondering what the hell you're doing."

Snape didn't answer.

"You should probably get off that ledge before you… fall," Sirius said, but was interrupted when he smelled a strange odor.

A very familiar one.

_No._

He took a few steps forward and saw something that verified his suspicions.

_Blood._


	6. Chapter 5

The Silver Lining

**Chapter Five**

"How stupid are you?" Sirius asked.

He still received no response.

"Don't do this," he said. "You have your whole life to live for."

"What life? I have nothing!"

"Maybe not, but you don't have to kill yourself!"

"You don't know what its like!" Snape shouted. Sirius wasn't sure how it happened, but in a single sold movement Snape was off the ledge and standing in front if him.

"You don't know anything!" he screamed at Sirius.

"I've been where you are!" Sirius shouted back. "I know what it feels like and I have the scars to prove it."

"How could you possibly know?" Severus spat. "You have a family, friends. People who care about you. You have every choice in the world open to you. You're free. How could you know what I'm going through?!"

"You're wrong. I only had one door open and I was being forced through it. You think my life is so perfect. You're wrong. My friends, they don't understand. James' parents love him; Remus' parents are muggles. Their parents are proud of them. To my parents I'm just a huge disappointment. A Gryffindor in the family. Walk in my shoes for a day and then tell me I don't know exactly what you're going through!"

Severus didn't have a response to that. Instead he walked back over to the ledge.

"Then you understand why this is my only way out," he said.

"No," Sirius said. "Every cloud has a silver lining."

"What does even that mean?" Severus asked, having never understood the proverb.

"It means that no matter how bad things are, no matter how dark a cloud is, there's always something worth living for. The silver lining. You just have to find it."

"Sorry Black, this cloud doesn't have a silver lining," he asked, looking at the ground (it was a long way down). "And out of curiosity, why do you suddenly care what happens to me? You're life would be a thousand times better if I was out of the picture. I guess you wouldn't have anyone to torture then…"

"What if it did?" Sirius said, ignoring the question and grabbing the Slytherins still bleeding wrist and pulling him back down from the ledge. "What is the one thing that would make you give up these suicidal thoughts?"

Snape looked at Sirius as he pulled him off the ledge.

"Anything," he whispered, sliding down the wall and to the ground. His mind was flooded of memories from the past few years. Constant torture from the Marauders, fights with Lily, calling Lily a mudblood, more torture, the final fight with Lily, torture from his father.

And then he began to tell the story. Tears fell down his face as he explained exactly what had brought him to this point.

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You must know how much I love reviews :)

Ella


	7. Chapter 6

If you didn't like how short the previous chapters were, you're gonna hate the next three. Heck, I don't even like how short they are. Oh well...

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The Silver Lining

**Chapter Six**

Severus had no idea why he was telling anyone these things.

And why Black of all people. Sirius Black, one of the many people that made his life a living hell. Part of the reason he was in this tower in the first place.

Yet, here he was, spilling his heart out to his enemy.

And felt good. Not the 'to his enemy part'. But the spilling his heart out.

It felt good to release all (or at least some) of the pain he had bottled up for the past 7 years.

But as he talked, he began to wonder.

_Why was Black here? Why was he helping him? Why was he pretending to care?_

But even more, he wondered why he felt so comfortable telling him all this.

Maybe it was because he knew, that in the end, he was still going to throw himself off the tower.

But then…

_Maybe it was something more._

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Okay, somebody reviewed and said that if Severus was really serious about killing himself and doing it properly, he should be passing out from the blood loss. Or something along those lines. In my mind, there are three ways you can look at it... One, he's completely deficient and is doing it wrong. Two, some part of him doesn't really want to die, so he unconsciously sabotaged his suicide. Or three, he's really sadistic and wants it to be a slow, painful death. I think option number three is the most dramatic, but I'm leaning toward number two as your answer.

Only two more to go!

Reviews are wonderful.

Ella


	8. Chapter 7

I don't own.

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The Silver Lining

**Chapter Seven**

Sirius has no idea why he had followed Snape to the astronomy tower.

He had no idea why he was trying to help his enemy.

He didn't know why he cared.

He didn't know why he was listening to the Slytherin as he told him of his sorrows.

He didn't know why he had tried to stop him from killing himself.

Or why he felt the need to make sure that the fragile boy wasn't alone.

No.

That's a lie.

He knew exactly why.

But he would never admit it.

To anyone.

_Not even himself._

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I know, I know, we all hate how short these chapters are getting. Don't worry, the next ones a tad longer and it'll be the end, you won't have to deal with my drama anymore.

Review please

Ella


	9. Chapter 8

So sorry, I meant to have this posted ages ago.

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The Silver Lining

**Chapter Eight**

"So if you want to find what would make my life worth living," Snape said. "Find me one person who cares. Just one person who gives a shit about what happens to me."

Then Snape moved to stand up, but Sirius, who was now sitting next to him, grabbed his wrist and pulled him back down.

Then he took the younger mans face in his hands and pulled him closer until their lips were almost touching.

"I care," Sirius whispered, closing his eyes in an attempt to not kiss the boy sitting next to him.

Sirius knew he couldn't do it. He wanted to, so badly, but he was afraid it would be the last straw, the one thing to finally send him over the edge (literally).

Just as he began to pull away, he felt Severus' lips on his own.

It wasn't anything like he had imagined (and believe me, he had).

It was better.

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Once again, it's patheticly short.

And that's the end!

REview please

Ella


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